


Turn your back

by apathyinreverie



Series: Tripping over tombstones [4]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Brothers, Gen, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-03-24
Packaged: 2019-11-29 06:11:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18219257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apathyinreverie/pseuds/apathyinreverie
Summary: The briefcase transports Klaus through time and space, lets him fall in love, only to then let him experience loss like nothing he has ever felt before or will likely ever experience again.Although, the worst part about the entire thing might just be that the suitcase didn't think to bring Ben along with it.





	Turn your back

Ben breathes out in absolute relief when they finally stumble onto the bus.

That lady cop - a friend of Diego's? - freed Klaus and they got out and now Ben won't have to watch his brother getting tortured any longer, won't have to try to provide that little bit of extra strength to Klaus to make sure his brother doesn’t entirely succumb to the haze of withdrawal and pain and blood-covered ghosts haunting him.

Sure, while they were stuck in that hotel room Ben did his best to appear entirely calm, almost _relaxed_ even. But only so he could give Klaus something to hold on to, a steady presence to focus on as the situation escalated, as his brother went through forced withdrawal while also bleeding from numerous wounds and with countless ghosts wailing their sorrow around them.

That would take a toll on anyone’s psyche and even more so on Klaus’, whose hold on reality is already shaky enough as it is - what with his tendency to drug himself into unconsciousness to escape the horrors around him, horrors that aren't there but are still very much real.

Klaus certainly doesn’t need memories of torture as added fuel on top of that.

And Ben has never felt hatred as he did while listening to those two would-be assassins talk about Klaus like he was less than a joke to them, casual conversation in between torture sessions, in between _laying their hands on his brother_.

Ben’s chest burns with absolute fury at the memory.

He breathes out, calming himself.

They are out now and in a bit they'll be back home and then Ben can urge Klaus to take care of himself, to maybe even ask Grace to fix him up a little – as unlikely as Klaus letting _anyone_ take care of him may be.

Because as much as Klaus plays the eccentric, irresponsible, carefree, childish junkie in front of others, Ben knows exactly just how self-sufficient Klaus truly is.

His brother _never_ asks for help, not anyone and never for anything actually important.

Klaus figured out how to survive this world _despite_ everything in it doing its utter best to drag him down. Klaus survives. Sure, his physical health is steadily declining due to the continued drug use and his mental is only health hanging on by a thread. But Klaus survives as best he can.

Others may call his brother weak for succumbing to his addictions regularly, but Ben knows the very real horrors that plague Klaus whenever he even gets anywhere near being sober. And Ben _wishes_ that there were a better way, has even talked Klaus into trying various other potential ways to keep the ghosts at bay over the years. Because watching his brother's dependence on the drugs, his willingness to do truly anything to get more, is definitely the most painful part of his existence as a ghost.

But nothing else ever really worked.

So, as much as he hates the fact that Klaus needs the drugs to keep himself in the here and now, Ben will never condemn him for it. Honestly, the fact that Klaus is still sane at all is already a bit of a miracle in Ben’s eyes.

He glances at his brother, who is sitting next to him, his limbs shaking, teeth chattering, covered in his own blood, wearing nothing but a blood-stained towel around his waist and a stranger's coat around his shoulders, clutching at the briefcase in his arms.

His brother is staring into the middle distance, far off, fidgeting, gnawing at his lip, his eyes flitting with the city landscape passing on the outside.

Ben knows the signs. Klaus is desperately wishing for a hit, anything to take the edge off, to numb the pain, to get rid of the countless ghosts crowding in around them, to let him sleep and his mind rest just for a little while.

But.

Right now, Klaus is sober, has already detoxed, even if only because he was forced into it. For the first time since they were children, Klaus is truly, absolutely sober.

And as much as he might accept - even _understand_ \- Klaus’ drug habit, Ben has been trying for years to convince his brother to give dealing with the ghosts sober another try, to try again now that he is an adult, hoping that with his powers having fully matured, Klaus might now be able to keep the ghosts at bay without the help of the drugs.

And it's not like Klaus hasn't tried to sober up before. God, has he ever. He tries rather regularly actually, if only because Ben pleads with him to do so.

But as much as he might want to, as strong as his conviction might be every time he tries to get clean once more, as soon as even the slightest sobriety sets in, the ghosts crowd around, lamenting, screeching, pleading, reaching for Klaus with their bloodied hands, begging for help.

As much as Ben wishes for Klaus to get clean, he simply can't blame his brother for succumbing to the temptation of drugs again and again and again, when he isn't only fighting his own addiction but also fighting against the horrors pressing down on him.

But it’s also a little different this time. Maybe now that Klaus already got past the withdrawals, maybe now after trying to actually talk to some of the ghosts that had been surrounding the two assassins, maybe now that they have clearly found a different aspect to Klaus’ power, maybe _now_ Klaus has an actual chance at truly getting clean for once.

And who knows what might happen then.

So, Ben needs to distract him, needs something that will keep Klaus from getting off the bus at the next stop to find himself a hit.

He focuses on the briefcase in his brother's hands.

"What's in the case?" he asks randomly, just saying the first thing that comes to mind that might distract his brother from his cravings.

Klaus' eyes flit to him, his breathing a little erratic, before he looks down, seemingly only now remembering the briefcase he is clutching to himself as if it were earth's greatest treasure.

Klaus breathes out, gives a forced giggle before loosening his grip on the case. Ben is happy to see that it is enough of a distraction to drag Klaus' attention away from the not quite real figures crowding around them.

"Please be money, please be money," Klaus murmurs as he reaches for the clasps with trembling, bloodied fingers, clearly just as happy for the distraction.

The clasps open. There is a flash of blue light. And then Klaus is just gone.

Ben stares at the spot where his brother had just been sitting barely a moment ago.

He doesn't panic. Ben is a ghost. Ghosts don't panic.

+++

Ben is absolutely panicking.

Klaus isn't anywhere, wasn't just transported somewhere else.

His brother is just gone.

After years of sticking to Klaus like metaphysical glue, his brother’s presence has become something Ben can just _feel_ no matter where Klaus might have skipped off to. Klaus’ presence is like a guiding light, like a tether that Ben didn't even have to really think about to reach for it. It was always just _there_.

And now it's gone.

Klaus is gone.

And despite knowing that for a fact, Ben still searches. Physically, metaphysically and spiritually. He searches despite knowing that he won't find anything.

Klaus isn't anywhere to be found.

And Ben already has a pretty good idea just what might have happened to rip his brother from this plane of existence. It’s really not that hard to figure out.

That twisting blue light coming from the briefcase right before Klaus had vanished, it was the exact same blue light as the one that had filled the courtyard behind their father's house during Five’s return from another time. And they got the briefcase itself from two assassins who were specifically looking for their timetraveling brother. Assassins who were also being followed around by ghosts from various places all around the world and from various _decades_.

So, it very much goes to reason that the briefcase might be somehow related to time travel as well.  

Thankfully, they got an expert on that particular field in their family. And that lady cop was Diego's friend, right? So, she'll tell Diego about freeing Klaus and when he doesn't return home after a while then they'll search for their brother and maybe Five will figure out that something happened to Klaus.

So, he needs to find his siblings. Ben skips home, lets his spirit drift to his father’s house. He ignores the slight drag he can already feel on his spirit due to Klaus' absence. He makes it home and he searches high and low but his siblings aren't actually anywhere to be found.

+++

Ben watches his siblings through narrowed eyes, anger pulsing in his chest, fury in his veins.

No one is looking for Klaus.

Sure, just like his brother, Ben hadn’t thought that their siblings would actually realize that Klaus had gone missing at all. But apparently Diego and Luther _had_ been made aware of that fact by Diego’s lady cop friend at some point and then Diego _had_ gone to that hotel room, only to find his brother missing and his friend dead.

And Ben truly regrets that. He doesn’t know anything about her except that she was a friend of Diego’s and that she was the only one who came to Klaus’ aid, but that alone had made her one of his absolute favorite people on this planet. Her having died while rescuing Klaus had never even occurred to Ben and he truly regrets that that is how everything ended.

But the thing that has him seething in anger is that his brothers do in fact know about Klaus having been taken now. And still not one of them is looking for him, everyone far too self-absorbed to so much as ask themselves the question where Klaus is, much less whether he is alright.

Ben has never felt so helpless and he didn't think he could ever feel this sort of anger at his siblings.

He watches, gritting his teeth, _hopinghopinghoping_ desperately for someone to do something.

He hopes in vain.

+++

And then - not even twenty-four hours after his disappearance - Ben feels Klaus just reappear, just as abruptly as he disappeared.

Yesterday on the bus, he was right there and then he just wasn't.

Just a second ago, he was gone and now he just isn't anymore.

Ben immediately struggles to free himself of the lethargy mixed with utter fury that has taken hold of him ever since Klaus' disappearance, as he watched his siblings’ absolute indifference to that very fact.

Klaus has only been gone for a day or so, but Ben has asked himself more than once whether he is already fading, turning into one of those wraiths that haunt Klaus in the dark, having nothing to hold on to. The thought alone is horrifying.

But Klaus' reappearance in this world is like sudden light in an increasingly darkening room.

And Ben is gone from their father's house without so much as a glance around. He doesn't even really want to _look_ at his siblings right now.

Ben gets back to Klaus' side just in time to witness his brother stumbling off a bus. Klaus who is wearing different clothes, Klaus whose hands are covered in blood, Klaus whose eyes are so desperately sad that Ben feels his heart constrict in empathic pain.

And then Klaus proceeds to destroy the briefcase in his hands with a sort of violence that Ben has never seen his brother exhibit before.

Ben just stands off to the side, watching and wholeheartedly approving of the destruction. If this shitty piece of luggage is responsible for taking his brother away from Ben, then it should be destroyed. With extreme prejudice.

But afterwards, as the suitcase burns itself out, Ben watches with increasing worry as Klaus falls to his knees, his hands running over the pavement as though feeling for something that isn't there, tears starting to run down his face.

Ben promptly drops to his knees beside him.

"Klaus?" he asks, speaking for the first time in what feels like forever.

His brother doesn't react.

Klaus is crying, painful, wrenching sobs that tear at Ben's heart, as he seems to almost deflate, slowly collapsing to lie sideways on the pavement, curling into himself.

What in the world happened to him while he was gone?

"Klaus?" Ben repeats with more urgency.

His brother still doesn't react, doesn't even twitch. Almost like he can't hear Ben anymore.

The fear at that thought - at the possibility that Klaus might have lost his ability to see him - is bone-deep, all-encompassing, ice-cold dread in his veins.

"Klaus, please?" he urges. "Klaus!"

And finally his brother reacts.

"Ben," he chokes out, barely distinguishable between the sobs, but there. And Ben can breathe again.

And he doesn't know what's going on, doesn't know whether it was truly time travel that ripped Klaus from this plane of existence for almost a day, doesn't know what it is that brought that desperate, grieving look to Klaus’ eyes.

But his brother is back, his brother can see him and as long as Ben can be there for Klaus, they can figure everything else out as they go.

So, he just settles next to his crying brother's curled up form on the ground, as always just being a steady, calming presence at Klaus' side and proceeds to glare at any passers-by who looks at his crying brother strangely. It doesn't matter that none of them can actually see him. It’s the principle of the thing.

+++

Ben doesn't know how he manages to get Klaus off the pavement and onto his feet. It involves a lot of verbal prodding and making Klaus flag down a cab despite not having any money on him. Pogo can pay the driver once they get home. Ben really doesn’t care about the specifics.

Because Klaus is almost catatonic where he is curled up on the seat of the cab that's taking them home. And there is nothing Ben can do to help except provide that steady, calm presence at his side.

After what must be fifteen minutes of absolute silence, Klaus breathes out, his tears having stopped but the pain in his eyes not having abated in the slightest.

"I lost him, Ben," his brother whispers, breath hitching.

It's said so quietly that Ben almost misses it over the noise of the car. He scoots even closer, for once wishing for nothing more desperately than the ability to touch his brother, to be able to physically comfort him.

"I _lost_ him," Klaus repeats, just as quietly, almost like he himself can’t quite grasp it.

And oh god, the pain in his voice.

Ben doesn’t know who ‘him’ is, but he does know that in all the years they’ve been stuck together, he has never heard his brother sound as lost as he does right now.

And sometimes Ben just really wants to know why this world seems to so enjoy only ever heaping pain and _more_ pain onto his brother.

+++

They get home and Ben gets Klaus to take a bath, to get rid of the blood that seems to cover his entire body.

He sits with his back leaning against the bathtub, thinking about the new scars he saw on his brother's body. Nothing too major, but still several scarred-over wounds, wounds which weren’t there a day ago but have already completely healed by now. Which means quite a bit of time must have passed since he got them. Not to even mention the new tattoo gracing his brother’s arm.

And even though he hasn't yet asked Klaus just how long he was gone on his end, much less where he went, Ben thinks he might already have a pretty good idea.

This is certainly not the first time Ben has seen something like this. It's not like there aren't any war vets fresh from battle amongst the ghosts that so like to haunt his brother.

And when Klaus finally gets out of the bath, he is mellow, his movements sluggish, almost lethargic as he gets dressed. He is clearly entirely sober – in a way Ben has never seen his brother be before - and so very desperately trying to hold it together.

Ben watches, trying to figure out what their next step should be, whether there is anything he can do to help his brother.

But before he has a chance to do anything, suddenly there is Five.

Five who either hadn’t realized that Klaus had been kidnapped in his stead or simply hadn’t cared. But suddenly, with the promise of getting his hands on that briefcase, suddenly Five has 'questions'.

Five, their smartest brother, who immediately knows exactly what is going on with his brother but easily ignores the signs of Klaus’ grief as well as that look in his eyes, the look of someone who hasn’t quite left the battlefield yet, who still expects there to be bullets flying around at any moment.

And sometimes Ben just really wishes he could come back to life even if only for an hour or so, just so he could knock some collective sense into all of his far too emotionally stunted siblings.

How is it that _he_ \- a ghost who died as a teenager - is the most emotionally mature amongst all of them?

But as always, Ben is powerless. But he swears to himself that he'll strangle his little shit of a too-old-man-in-a-child's-body brother as soon as they see each other in the afterlife. Just as he very much plans to beat the ever living crap out of his other two brothers for first ignoring Klaus’ absence and for then not even noticing the changes in Klaus afterwards, for not even caring enough to at least ask where he has been for the past few days.

But then suddenly no one has time for anything anymore, because shit really starts going down.

Seeing Klaus cry about a picture in a vet bar about breaks Ben’s heart and Diego at least somewhat redeems himself in Ben’s eyes. Then the ice-cream truck and chasing down the assassins who kidnapped his brother in the first place, which would give Ben far more satisfaction if they had managed to take out at least one of those pricks.

Then there is Five’s disappearance and rather prompt reappearance. Klaus taking drugs again, then trying to get clean again. Luther fucking choking him. And then Ben’s absolute biggest regret yet of talking Klaus into going after Luther, to help Luther, only for Klaus to almost die – or rather almost stay dead – in the process and Luther taking off without so much as a thought to his brother.

Then there are the revelations about their father’s suicide, because the manipulative prick couldn’t just pick up a phone and call them instead of staging his own murder mystery. In between all of those happenings there is also the discovery of Klaus possibly being able to turn Ben corporeal in some manner, which is a little mind-blowing to be entirely honest.

And then Allison almost being killed. By Vanya of all people.

Vanya who apparently has powers after all. Vanya who brings down the house on top of all of them. Vanya who then also unintentionally causes the apocalypse.

Which somehow leads to all of them traveling back in time.

And suddenly, Ben is alive again. Stuck in his kid body, but alive nonetheless.

And _maybe_ one of his first thoughts after finally getting used to the idea of being amongst the living again, is that he won’t have to wait for his chance to knock some sense into his siblings until they join him in the afterlife after all.

Because in contrast to Klaus’ far too forgiving nature, Ben has always been rather excellent at holding grudges. 

**Author's Note:**

> So, this turned out much longer than I had originally planned, but seems like I'm still not quite over that part where no one even realized that Klaus was kidnapped, then everyone somehow also missing the fact that he disappeared from the hotel room and just what that might mean, and then no one noticing the changes in him from not only being tortured but also having gone to war... Ben being pissed off at everyone for those very same reasons just makes sense to me.  
> Would love to know what you think (*^^*)
> 
> And I might actually write another version of this where the exact opposite happened and Ben was brought along to Vietnam, just so I can have him meet Dave and give Klaus someone to talk about the love of his life with :D


End file.
